Man Cared For 10 Abandoned Kids

The 10 children abandoned in a ramshackle row house in Atlantic City, N.J., three weeks ago had arrived at the house with a female relative who quickly disappeared, and a man who had been living there made sure they had food and stayed clean, Mayor James Whelan said Saturday.

“I don’t want to say they were well cared for,” the mayor said. “But this guy was at least making sure they had food, some level of comfort.”

The children remained in foster homes Saturday, and state officials refused to say whether their parents had been found.

The man, whose whereabouts was not known Saturday, told the authorities that a woman had come to the row house early this month and asked if she could stay there briefly, Whelan said.

When the man consented, he said, the woman returned with 10 children, dropped them off at the house and disappeared.

The woman was the mother of some of the children and the aunt of the others, the mayor said.